COM(2016) 740 final - Proposal for a new European Consensus on Development Our World, our Dignity, our Future -

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 2030 Agenda), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, represents a new and ambitious framework to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication. The core of the 2030 Agenda is the set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated targets.

Consistent with its active part in the negotiations, the EU should play a leading role in implementing the Agenda. A number of initiatives are being taken forward for this purpose. The Commission Communication on "Next steps for a sustainable European future: European action for sustainability"2 shows the significance of the SDGs for Europe and explains how the EU contributes to reaching them, including through EU external action. The Global Strategy on the EU's Foreign and Security Policy3, which provides a vision for Europe's engagement in the world, highlights the importance of the SDGs in the context of EU external action. In addition, the 2030 Agenda needs to be incorporated into the Union's development cooperation policy, and in particular by revising the shared vision of the EU institutions and the Member States set out in the Consensus on Development4, which was signed in 2005 and pursued the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.